Hi, My name is Sarah Walch. I have been given the great opportunity to work as an intern for the past month and it has proven to be an unforgettable experience. My tasks have varied from data entry, cleaning artifacts, data collection from Shipley's Battery on Hassel, and completing a random inventory of the parks’ artifacts. The park must complete an inventory of the accessions and catalog records every year. Fortunately, this is just a small sample (202) of all of the 550,000 objects in our collection. Some of the collection, such as the insects, mammals, herbarium, corals and rocks are rarely seen, so the inventory is important to account for the object and to also note the overall condition. The whole process only took us a week, which is a vast improvement over previous years, when the collection was less organized and the interns spent weeks in the bally building trying to find one single artifact.

I have challenged myself with new information every single day varying from trying to identify artifacts, their dates, their uses, and the list goes on. When I am viewing artifacts from this island’s history, a series of questions begin to flow. I wonder about the previous owners, what was happening in history, how and if they were affected. The dull moments are non-existent for me as I become wrapped up in my work. The only regret I have is not discovering this opportunity earlier. I have to return to the mainland this summer to finish some school yet I hope to come back to help the cultural resource team.